Reader Comments (32)

If you read the "comments" in the SF Chronicle, it is amazing how many people are either sympathetic to this guy or even hostile to Mike Davis and company for even being disturbed by it. Webb came in for a lot of scorn for his comments about going to jail. I'm from Maryland, I guess that is a San Fran mentality.

Unless he's mentally ill, he deserves to feel some criminal process, it seems to me, but I am only a judge and I don't live in the Land Beyond Reason, so maybe I'm disqualified on both counts. If he has issues, well, leave the poor bird alone.

I think the guy's a loon, but please explain to me what charges you would press and what sort of "criminal process" he should go through. Last I checked it wasn't against the law to be a rude idiot. Ever been to Walmart?

Okay I can see people thinking Mike over or under reacted, but how can anyone criticize Webb? He has a fantastic reaction. Funny, with just a touch of an edge and so quick under the circumstances, then went right on about his job of enjoying the moment. That impressed me as much as his golf over the weekend.

What a scumbag. He probably has not accomplished much in his life, so he must ruin others' spotlighted moments to send his "message". His plight has absolutely nothing to do with the US Open.

"I apologize to Mr.Simpson if I took any of his special moments away, but obviously the message I'm trying to get across is to try to get people to stop deforestation..."

What a grade-A ass. I'm sure they could have found something to charge him with, ie Trespassing (no armband to be in area). People like this are the worst. No respect for anyone else. I hope someone interrupts his father's funeral with an equally disrespectful display.

Who Cares?Everyone let it go, especially the overbearing morons calling for some criminal process for making bird noises during a stuffy, pathetic, staged trophy presentation ceremony. Simpson should see it as some kind of sign from his God, that the guy was there to make bird noises, apparently everything else is from and by God, so why not this?

Can you imagine being charged for walking in front of a camera making bird noises?

It is as true as it is disappointing to suggest that the USGA needs to beef up security.

What a shame. For anybody who has seen a USGA trophy presentation live, it has heretofore been a wonderful, casual-yet-historic affair, usually in fading, gentle, evening light. Always at the end of many days' of intense play. Every one I've been to, I imagine Jim Standish handing trophies to Ben Hogan; Hogan rubbing the trophy on Snead's sportcoat; Sandy Tatum presenting one to Hale Irwin, and Bobby Jones standing behind a table with four trophies on it. You can get close in those presentations. Close like in amateur match-play.

And thanks to this jackass, that has to change. He's the on-steroids/online version of the guys yelling "GET IN THE HOLE" on par-5 tee shots. It is vandalism, of my experience. I don't think that I am going out on too much of a limb by saying that it is the vandalism of the experience of thousands or millions of people.

@ Press Agent, Matt, - ask Monica Seles how "harmless" it is for random, unauthorized fans to come onto the field of play - and that includes trophy presentations, press conferences, etc. What would have happened 30 yrs ago is that guy would have been taken out back and beat to a pulp. Instead he gets publicity, gets interviewed and puffed up by the sympathetic media and residents of SF. Guess what, next event they will hire 20 security guards for the tourney, and who pays for that ?

I have determined this man should be given the key to the city and sanctuary in the great city of San Francisco.

Even though my husband Paul belongs to the San Francisco Golf Club (birdmans behaivior would not be allowed there) I find it perfectly OK for anyone to exercise their right to free expression or bird calls in front of national TV, except when Obama is talking.

me, WTF does that even mean? You too must be English, and patting yourself on the back for defending one of your countrymen who was so brave to spontaneously vocalize his cause. This guy's a loser of the highest degree, and he's getting way more exposure now. Perhaps the USGA, PGA, and R&A should hire "Birdman" to make calls at all future events! That way if Westwood gets his first major at the Open, he won't feel jilted that no one took away any of his special moments.

He didn't attack anyone. See the difference??? If you want to say the guy should not have been allowed where the press were because the press are so much more trusted than some random birdman - and put the blame on security - fine. However you can't compare a guy walking into a camera shot and making a bird call with someone who attacks and tries to kill someone, that is a specious argument. At any given moment, anywhere in the world, someone COULD walk down the sidewalk and attack anyone else, that does not mean we assume everyone everywhere in the world is going to do that and therefore put guards on each person. The fact is the guy didn't do anything illegal or even wrong. He did something that was rude. If you want to start charging people criminally for doing rude things, if that is the direction you want to take the country, good luck to you.